==========

Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend PODCAST
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Subscribe-Share

==========

Weekend 3-of the NFL schedule and games that carry importance.

CHARGERS-STEELERS…Both are (2-0), one impressive, the Bolts, one not so impressive, Pittsburgh.  The big story, do you play a banged up Justin Herbert, coming off a scary-crushing hit that injured an ankle?  He has not practiced this week, and why risk him against a fierce Blitzburgh pass rush if he is a stationary QB?  The Steelers have to start young QB-Justin Fields, who has been highly erratic throwing the ball.  How does Pittsburgh protect him against a strong Chargers blitz package?  This game features explosive JK Dobbins of the Bolts, who leads the NFL in rushing (9.9YPC). The Steelers live off heavy duty ballcarrier Najee Harris, but the Steelers are not a big play team.  Watch the matchup, RT-Joe Alt vs the antics of LB-TJ Watt.  Bet this game becomes a field goal kicking contest.

GIANTS-BROWNS..Deshaun Watson comes off a win.  QB-Daniel Jones comes off a vote of confidence from NY ownership.

PACKERS-TITANS…Jordan Love practiced, a week after a knee injury.  If he cannot play, ex Titans Malik Willis will start again.  But the real story is Josh Jacobs coming off a (146Y) rushing game for Green Bay.  Can he duplicate that?

BEARS-COLTS..Caleb Williams and Anthony Richardson, both coming off rocky starts at QB, face each other.

TEXANS-VIKINGS..Minnesota is off to a (2-0) start but now they face a high octane Texans team.  Houston is really good

EAGLES-SAINTS..Surprise (2-0) start for New Orleans and now they are home to meet Jalen Hurts and the explosive Eagles.  Big issue, where is the dominance of this Philadelphia defense?

BRONCOS-TAMPA BAY..Rocky start for Bo Nix’s Denver QB-career.  4-picks-turnovers in 2-weeks.  Not much help for him yet.

RAIDERS-CAROLINA..Las Vegas opened up the playbook last weekend and saw Davante Adams-and the tight ends combined to catch (19) passes last weekend.  Carolina is a disaster and has benched young QB-Bryce Young.

MIAMI-SEATTLE..Geno Smith and a diverse Seahawks offense lines up against a Dolphins team without its heart-soul leader, QB-Tua Tagovailoa.

RAMS-49ERS…Both teams are banged up, the Rams in worse shape than San Francisco.  Matthew Stafford meet Nick Bosa.  This could be bad.  The Niners have beaten the Rams 9-of-10 times.

LIONS-CARDINALS…Is an ambush coming in Arizona?  The Lions got beat at home, the Redibrids 3-pronged offense-Kyler Murray-Marvin Harrison-James Conner was exceptional last week.

CHIEFS-ATLANTA..The storyline is not so much Patrick Mahomes-vs-Kirk Cousins, it’s the siege of injuries to the Chiefs.  Down 3-running backs, without Hollywood Brown, problems at LT.  And the Falcons coming off a strong road win.

BUFFALO-JACKSONVILLE…The Jaguars are (0-2) and the heat on coach Doug Pedeson is growing.  They could be (0-3) by Monday midnight.

BENGALS-WASHINGTON..Joe Burrow cannot do it by himself.  Jayden Daniels has played pretty well in his first two starts in the league has been a pleasant surprise.

Enjoy it, will be wild.
=====================================

=====

Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast..1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
=====
“BASEBALL & UMPIRES”
======

What to do about the Men-in-Blue?

Umpiring in baseball is under siege.
The game has changed.
It is so much faster, so much more pressurized, full of big plays.
Full of mistakes too.

And this is the most important time of the season, with playoff spots on the line, and then the most critical part of the year, the playoffs into the World Series.

And the big stories are the showdown games, the Dodgers fight to hold onto first place, the Padres clash to take the top wildcard spot, and what’s going on in the AL-East, the year long war with the Yankees-Orioles.

But here we are at crunch time, and the games are marred by constant issues with the umpires.

Balls and strikes calls.
Safe or out at the plate or on the bases.
Balks-walks-hits batsmen.
Rules interpretations delays.
Instant replay challenges.
Pitch clock violations
Rabbit ears injections
Moving strike zones

It seems to be getting worse, and next on the horizon will be the robo-ump computer situation, and the manager’s challenge system that will be introduced.

And baseball could be looking at full implementation of the computerized strike zone the following season.

Of course the purists say leave the human element in the game, including the umpires.

But in the aftermath of the Padres-Astros fiasco on Tuesday night, things are out of control.

The 5-minute delay as the Umps talked to New York about interpretation of the rules over the pitch clock situation and the timeouts.

Add on the Jurickson Profar hit by pitch affair, where both he and the Astros said he was not plunked by a pitch.  He wanted his at bat, but they sent him to first base, where the rally died and he cursed the umps on the way back to the dugout.

And the hilarity-ejection of Jose Altuve taking off his shoe and sock after saying he got plucked by a pitch on the foot.  That to be followed by his ejection.  And then his manager got tossed.

Nothing like letting the game get out of control because the umps cannot cope with all the rule changes.

And here we are, almost to the playoffs in what goes down as the worst year of umpiring we have seen in a long, long time.

And we thought ridding the game of Umpire Angel Hernandez would solve alot of the controversy.  Sure did not because alot of his fellow umps are not doing much better.

The ‘Men in Blue’ giving baseball a ‘Black Eye’.

==========================

======

‘NOTEBOOK FULL OF COLLEGE TIDBITS’

=======

UCLA..Too early to panic?  Not so, at least in Westwood.  The Bruins are not competitive and the howls over the hiring of Deshaun Foster grow.  Eric Bienemey, brought in to recruit and coach them up, cannot coach a too young team or a no talent team.  Next up Bruins-at-LSU.  As Keith Jackson would yell ‘O-Nellie’.

TROJANS..Quick start, smart QB in Miller Moss, bunch of transfers  who can play.  And they go to Ann Arbor to face a troubled Michigan team with quarterback problems (2TD-6Int) in two weeks already.

OREGON..Dan Lanning doesn’t care about the Civil War, rivalry games.  Leaving his starters in to run up the score on Oregon State.  Wanting big wins.  Wanting to build QB-Dillon Gabriel’s Heisman Stats, and wanting to make sure no blue chipper would consider signing with the Beavers.

AZTECS..Bye week at the right time.  Hard to believe OL has 20-of-teams 39-penalties.  Going to take time, but by the time they get to Mountain West schedule in 2-weeks, think the offense will kick into gear, and they won’t be playing Pac 12-teams for a while.

UNLV..Wow (3-0) start with wins at Houston, at Kansas, doing it without last year star QB whoe transferred into USC to ride the bench.

BOISE STATE..RB-Ashton Jenty amazing start-true Heisman running back in a QB-world.

FRESNO STATE..Lost in all the merger and conference expansion hype is a pretty good throwing QB in the Bulldogs’ Mikey Keane.

LOBOS..May be (0-3) but Bronco Mendenhall’s New Mexico team is going up and down the field with a transfer laden offensive unit, and should be watched when league play kicks in.

AIR FORCE..Cannot move the ball, cannot run the ball, cannot throw the ball.  Tough season ahead after Falcons graduated all their skill guys at the Academy.

 

COLORADO..Week by week controversy.  QB-Shedeur Sanders refuses to shake the hand of Colorado State QB-Brandon Nicolosi after angry words exchanged.  All things with Coach Prime’s team seem shady.

BUFFALOES…WR-CB-Travis Hunter, the next coming of what we saw Neon Deion become in the NFL?  Exceptional talent.

NOTRE DAME…Crazy talk that Marcus Ferguson is on thin ice in South Bend, but he lost at home to Northern Illinois, Marshall and a then (3-9) Stanford team.

PAC 12..Pushing expansion timetable-appears next one they will offer will be Memphis State-makes no sense to me.  Wish they would look harder at Air Force.  Still like my idea of offering basketball only slot to Gonzaga-St Marys-USF.  Add on to national brand of Pac 12.

MOUNTAIN WEST..Looking at expansion and looking at Big Sky powers Montana-Montana State..but big financial issue..can Bobcats-Grizzlies afford move up from 65-scholarships (1AA) to 90-grants (Division 1)?  That plus the need for NIL money increases?

ON MY TV..Saturday prime time, every station has games on TV, but on my TV-West Coast time, I had Colorado State..San Jose State..Wake Forest..Air Force..UTSA…New Mexico all in the prime time window in the Pacific Time Zone.  Yeah you may have 500-channels on your TV-does not guarantee good programming…Awful.

===================

========
Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe

========

Everyone needs a bye week, as it relates to San Diego State football.

Three games into Sean Lewis’ debut as head coach, with the all the excitement the Aztecs Fast offense was supposed to provide, they have played 2-quality quarters of football in the 12-quarters they have played.

A second half win against Texas-AM-Commerce.  Since then virtually nothing of success in the shutout loss to Oregon State and the pounding at California.

2-losses, losing their top left tackle, then the starting quarterback.  And the loss of composure is staggering, 39-penalties in 3-games, including a basket full against the SDSU offensive line.

The stats are numbing, an offense averaging just (307YPG)..a defense giving up back to back 400-yard games (357YPG).  The 54%-completion rate by the QBs, compared to near 70%-when Lewis coached his offenses other places.

But of course the two blowout losses coming at the heels of Pac 12-level teams, Oregon State and California.

Lewis must have nightmares thinking about ‘being behind the chains, virtually every possession, every game.

Bye week at the right time to fix the OL-issues and a bye week to give starting young QB-Danny O’Neill time to heal from a sprained knee suffered two weeks ago.  Then a road trip to Central Michigan, and then the beginning of the trip thru the Mountain West Conference.

Coach Sean Lewis’ -Monday Press Conference:
—————

Sunday off into the bye week
Attitude good-positives we can build on
Sto[ self inflicted wounds

Bye week-hit reset…self-evaluate our strengths

39-penalties in 3-games
We control procedure calls..know the moments
Lots new guys working together for first time
New QBs-cadence calls-rythm

Offense-identify the defensie front-understand play calls
No secret sauce-no pixie dust we can shake over these guys

WR group-lots play makers to get ball too
Inside numbers-outside numbers-down the field..get everyone involved

Plan shorter practices..more fundamental time
Tighter-Crisper individual teaching

Recruiting week to Colorado-Texas on bye week
Constant communication with both recruits and those committed
Yes we have have to re-recruit with
PAC 12-membership will open doors to kids that want to play at that level

Danny O’Neil-watch from sidelines-different perspective for him
Gave knowledge to JaVance Johnson during the game
Will give O’Neill reps in practice this week

Our defense has set the tone well last two weeks against big teams
Tre White-Luteli becoming leaders
Need to stop giving up explosive runs
Tre-learning nuances of this position..attention to detail
Luteli understands our calls on defense now-get in position
He helps get guys in position to make plays

We have tricks in our bag to use as surprises
Display it now-challenge opposing coaches to have to prepare with it
Cool-unjique-guys get to step out of their usual role
Gives kids excitement

Coach-green quarterbacks chances-help grow
Tremendous opportunity to see them grow..not a challenge..opportunity
Without growing pains-chance to learn..special to learn from it
Really to see kid QBs grow

Learn from 3-weeks of tape against good teams

Early start time at Central Michigan no problem
We start practice early at 8:40am..used to playing football early

Being off schedule-behind the chains..I wake up at night thinking of it.
Off schedule…3rd and 17-to-3rd and 30..those are tough calls

MAC-MWC are one and same conferences
Very productive offensive units

MWC-quick start..very good at top of conference

Good league..strong starts-Boise-Fresno-UNLV
Rebels to beat two Big 12-opponents
Boise’s RB superb

===========================

=======

Hacksaw’s Monday BONUS Podcast…1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
=======
“DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE”
=======

Some sports weekend of football.

CHARGERS..JK Dobbins is a difference maker for the Bolts.  The two wins are a direct result of his explosive runs.  Justin Herbert has not looked as dominant as he has in the past.  The wideout group has yet to be consistent.  But Dobbins has run tough, run to daylight, and run to get them off to a (2-0) start.  His former team, the Ravens, could sure use him, off to an (0-2) start.

RAIDERS NATION..No one saw this coming, this shocker of a win in Baltimore.  The defense choked off Lamar Jackson.  They changed the playbook and target WR-Davantae Adams and TE-Brock Bowers (18-combined catches) and won despite the shoddy start early of Gardner Minshew, interception-fumble-3 sacks.  Huge save the season win.

49ers..Wow, a battering in Minnesota despite a big throwing day from QB-Brock Purdy, another 100-yard rushing day from RB-Jordan Mason.  But they could not survive a 97Y-TD catch and run from Justin Jefferson.  By the way, all that money for Brandon Aiyuk and not much contribution 2-weeks into the season.

BENGALS..Joe Burrow has no fear of Arrowhead Stadium, a place where most QBs wilt under the pressure of the Chiefs defense and the sold out crowds.  The Bengals don’t look to have a great roster aside from the QB, but that was a shootout with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs-always great theatre.  And sadly the Bengals always young team cannot hold up in the 4th quarter and what looked like a Burrows-led win, turned into a loss.

CHIEFS..All those lead changes at home, six of them,  vs Cincinnati.  There are stretches where Patrick Mahomes doesn’t seem to have enough help, but the speed packages they have wide receiver can make a difference, and will.  It is just two weeks into the season.

COWBOYS…What an awful start, giving up TD bombs of 57-and-70 yards, and they never recovered against the Saints and Derek Carr.and RB-Alvin Kamara.  Might be the shocker of the weekend, this New Orleans win in Dallas.

JACKSONVILLE…They paid QB-Trevor Lawrence 55M-a year and he is not playing like a 55M-quarterback.  Now they lost at home to the battered Cleveland Browns and their struggling QB-Deshaun Watson.  Write down Doug Pederson’s name as a coach in jeopardy.

LIONS..Did not think this was possible, they’d lose at home to Tampa Bay, but Baker Mayfield came out throwing, and Jared Goff threw two picks and the Bucs had an upset win

RAMS..The injuries have caught up with them, and they are (0-2) despite the heroics of QB-Matthew Stafford, who does not have alot of help.  And they got ambushed big time by Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison…The Cardinals piled up (489Y) against the depleted LA defense and they had 5-sacks of Stafford.

WASHINGTON..Quite a start for QB-Jayden Daniels the Commanders rookie signal caller.  Of course they were playing the Giants and he got 7-field goals from his kicker Austin Siebert, but the LSU rookie had (226P).

HOUSTON…Real deal CJ Stroud and all the ingredients they have on that roster, the Texans are loaded with firepower, pass and run.  Stroud is a superb young star at this moment, just 1-season into his career.

BRONCOS..A bumpy start to Bo Nix’s season…2-losses..4-interceptions.  Big issue, not much of a run game around him.

CAROLINA..Just an awful look at the Panthers roster.  QB-Bryce Young looks lost, no confidence, not reading defenses well.  What a disaster this is.

GIANTS..What comes first…vote of no confidence from the fans towards QB-Daniel Jones, or a no-vote to coach Brian Daboll and his New York GM.  This is a mess too.

 

SAINTS..Derek Carr and an unsung defense has this team (2-0) and has scored 91-points in two weeks.  A bit much to consume since most everything thought Dennis Allen was on the hot seat in coaching.  We are just two weeks into the New Orleans season.  See me at mid year and we will see where the record is.

CHICAGO..Maybe a bit of a steeper learning curve that we thought for #1 pick Caleb Williams, but it is a 17-game season.